GenQ - For the not so straight individual
The Value of PrideThe Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is not far around the corner, yet has it lost its meaning. Stewie G gives his 2 cents. It's been going since 1978, the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. With its ground roots as a protest march and a commemoration to the Stonewall Riots. However, over the years the name of the march has changed and so to has the communities perception, both gay and straight, towards homosexuality and gay life. In the early days the event was more politically motivated, and although there are still strong areas of political thought put into many of today's floats, todays Mardi Gras parade has become more of an expression of gayness and how different we are. It's also become more of a public spectacle at a time when we as a community are trying to argue for the same basic freedoms and rights as other Australians. A time when we should be trying to show how similar we are and how well we integrated into everyday life. Of course no-one would dare say that people should not celebrate the person they are or the community they believe they are in. Shouldn't we though find more of a political message to go with the parade? Now as a community many of us are searching desperately for an avenue to express our love in a binding union such as marriage, yet to the straight community the event itself is promoting promiscuity and a lifestyle so totally foreign to the majority of straight people that it is at once scary and confronting. Is it so hard then to believe that by pushing this image of GLBT life, that the straight community finds it hard to understand why we want to be married? Or how we as a community can hold the idea of marriage as important to us? I remember my first time watching Mardi Gras. It was a visual spectacle of lights, sequins and feathers. Where everyone was hell bent on showing how proud they were to be gay and that no matter the public perception they were defiant and emboldened with their identity. These days though, the floats have disappeared and become vans or flatbed trucks, with same sex couples kissing and disrobing for shock value more than to get their message across. The dancing boys are still there, as are Fred Niles Christian party on the steps opposite Hyde Park, but the flavour and even sometimes the point of the event, seems to be gone. Where has the identity of the Mardi Gras Parade gone? Is it hiding? Is it bruised from the issues that clouded the start of this new millennia? Or is it simply that political statement is not sexy anymore? Stewie G wishes to make known that his comments are his own and not that of the management or staff of Generation Q. But if you want to complain to him directly email him at StewieG@optusnet.com.au More recent articles regarding Mardi Gras 2007 can be found by clicking these links: www.generationq.net/GenQCMS/viewarticle.php and www.generationq.net/GenQCMS/viewarticle.php
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